


The shadows of doubt

by Lola_Rose_Robins



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Background Relationships, Castiel and Gabriel are Siblings (Supernatural), Curses, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreams vs. Reality, Eventual Happy Ending, Fighting, Gen, Hallucinations, Horror, Hurt Castiel (Supernatural), M/M, Not Beta Read, Shadow Monsters, Sick Castiel (Supernatural), Subtext, They/Them Pronouns For Castiel (Supernatural), Worried Dean Winchester, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:14:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26817937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lola_Rose_Robins/pseuds/Lola_Rose_Robins
Summary: The crunch of bones, alerted Cas to the creature lurking on the other side of the room. It didn’t have a face, nor did it have clothes or hair, or really any features at all, it was just an oily black shadow.The shadow slowly came closer, and closer, Castiel could feel the hatred and hunger radiating off it. Something had to be done. Castiel searched the space around them and found a battered old angel blade, covered in black slime and ashes, it would have to do.
Relationships: Castiel & Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Castiel & Gabriel (Supernatural), Castiel & Jack Kline & Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester
Kudos: 5





	The shadows of doubt

**Author's Note:**

> I was having some trouble with the beginning, but I'm actually kinda proud of how this thing turned out. I'm not the best writer, but I like this one.

The first thing they felt was the pain. A throbbing headache, originating at their temples and spreading out to their face and scalp.

Castiel sat up, and immediately fell back down, as their head had bonked against something hard. Had the ceiling always been this low?

Whatever place they were in, it smelled awfully dusty in there, with just a delightful little undertone of mould. The sound of water dripping echoed through the room, it sounded like the room was quite large, but why was the ceiling so low?

The angel opened their eyes, and they were met by the wooden underside of an old table. Right, the ceiling was fine.

Castiel crawled out from under the table and looked around, where had they ended up? They seemed to be in a tunnel of sorts, slightly reminiscent of hell, but lacking the torture and souls. And heat, the angel realised as a shiver ran up their spine. Alright, time to go home.

Castiel spread their wings, wincing as they had cramped up, but they pushed through and after flapping them around for a few seconds and applying pressure at the right spots, Cas got their wings back in working order and flew off, leaving the dank dungeon behind.

——

“Cas!”

Dean’s voice was the first thing Cas heard, telling them that they had, in fact, arrived at the bunker. They had had their doubts if they would be able to reach it at first, since their wings were still hurting and stiff and the headache was slowly taking over their senses. But they had made it, Cas was home now.

Cas’ knees hit the floor harshly, but the pain was drowned out by the ever-present headache. They waited for their face to hit the floor, but the moment never came. Two strong arms wrapped around Cas’ chest and lifted them back to their feet. Cas allowed themselves to lean into the person supporting them and everything went blank again.

——

Cas woke up in their bedroom. It was quite early in the morning, they could tell. They sat up, after making sure there was nothing directly above them, and looked around. The suit and trench coat were nowhere in sight, but that was okay, they didn’t really feel like wearing them today. They looked through their dresser and picked out some clothes that did fit their mood for the day. They put on the skinny jeans and sleeveless shirt and tied a plaid shirt around their waist before confidently waltzing out of the room and towards the kitchen. The Winchesters would just deal with it.

There was no one in the kitchen yet, since it was still pretty early in the morning, approximately 6am. Cas didn’t mind, they’d just wait here for the others to wake up.

At about 7.36 am, Cas heard the first footsteps headed for the kitchen.

“Good morning!” Cas called out cheerfully.

“Mornin’ Cas.” Came the reply, in a strangely familiar voice. They turned around and nearly dropped their coffee in shock.

“What’s wrong, Cas? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

On any other day, Cas would have made a remark about how they see ghosts pretty regularly and they would not shock them if they’d seen one, but today was not that day.

“Cas?”

Cas slid off their chair and put some more distance between them-self and the familiar stranger.

“Who are you? Why do you look like me?” Cas called out, because the stranger did, in fact, look exactly like Cas.

“What are you talking about? It’s me, remember, Sam?” The other Cas looked genuinely concerned, perfectly mimicking one of Sam’s many expressions. Too perfect.

He took a step towards Cas, and they slowly backed away. This continued, until Cas hit solid wall. The other Cas came closer and closer. He didn’t look threatening, but he didn’t have to, he looked like Cas, and that was a problem.

The real Cas prepared them-self for whatever would come next. Then, out of nowhere, the headache came back, more painful and more intense than before. Cas could do nothing more but close their eyes and scream, they sank to the floor, cradling their head in their hands. The pain was everywhere, it took over all senses, all was pain.

A burning sensation on their shoulder, it felt alive. Cas lifted their hand to swat at it, it was another hand. Oh dad, this was it, this was where Cas would die.

A faint voice echoed around in Cas’ head, it was calling their name. “Cas? Cas!”

Cas focussed on the voice, and as it became clearer, the headache slowly went away.

Cas didn’t want to move yet, afraid that any movement would cause the pain to return, or cause whatever was out her with them, to realise they were still alive. Better to just play dead, for now. Soon, there was nothing but darkness.

——

Castiel lay on the floor of the bunker kitchen, unmoving, save for the occasional full-body shiver.

Dean had come into the kitchen a few seconds prior, since Cas’ screams were loud enough to be heard throughout the bunker. He had told Jack to stay in his room, just in case something dangerous had entered their home, but he hadn’t listened, and now the two of them stood side by side in the kitchen, looking down at Cas, unsure how to proceed.

“Help me lift him up, guys.” Sam gave directions and finally Dean and Jack moved again, glad to have a purpose. Together they lifted Cas unto a table and did a quick vitals check. He seemed to be perfectly healthy, but something was definitely wrong. A healthy person doesn’t just go around saying people look like them and then drop to the floor, screaming in pain, that’s not what healthy people do.

Now what? Nobody really knew. If only they knew what was going on, they’d know who to call for help, but until then, they could only wait for Cas to wake up again. Dean was too nervous to sit still, so he put on the kettle and made coffee for everyone, including Cas, Cas would definitely want coffee when he woke up. Jack just sat at the table, watching over his sleeping father.

Finally, Cas started moving again, and this time it wasn’t a shiver or a ragged breath, no these were the movements of someone who was just waking up with a hangover. Hands pressed against his forehead and eyes squinted against the light, Castiel sat up. Dean practically sprinted over to hand him the coffee, nearly spilling it all over himself.

——

Cas looked up at the person who had handed them the coffee. “Hello, Dean.”

“Hey, buddy. How ya doing?” Cas could hear from the concern in Dean’s voice that something had happened.

“I’m, fine. Just a bit hungover, I guess.”

If only Cas could remember why they were hungover, had they been drinking? Were they attacked? No matter how hard they tried, they could not for the life of them remember anything that had happened up to this point.

“You really scared us, buddy. What was that? You sure you’re alright?”

Cas didn’t know the answer, but made one up anyway. “I’m fine, Dean. It’s over now.”

“You know we’re gonna have to talk about it eventually, about what happened yesterday…and throw in this morning too.” Sam spoke up. Always Sam, always having to talk about everything, why couldn’t everyone just leave so Cas could enjoy their coffee in peace?

“What are you talking about, what happened yesterday?” Since Cas did not remember, they might as well ask around a bit.

“You don’t remember‽ Dude, you randomly appeared in the middle of the library, looking like you’d been dead and buried for several centuries, and just dropped to the floor like a sack of freaking potatoes! You are not ‘fine’, Cas. Now spill!”

Cas was silent, they did not remember any of that. How does one respond to that?

——

Dean had a bad feeling about this. After questioning him for several hours, it became painfully obvious that Cas really did not remember anything, the last thing he remembered was sitting in the library, reading, while Dean and Jack baked pie in the kitchen. That was two days ago now…

Dean tried to remember anything he could about that day. They were baking, he was in the kitchen, so he could not see Cas. A flutter of wings, then another. Twice, in a row. So either Cas had decided to fly around in the library before leaving, or some other angel had come in first, taking Cas with them as they left. But where had they gone?

“Sammy! Where did we put Cas’ stuff? After he came back.”

“Uh, in the laundry room, but it’s not been washed yet- hey, where are you going?”

“I gotta check something!”

Dean rushed into the laundry room and snatched the bundle of clothes out of a basket. They were dusty and covered in dirt and grime. He couldn’t really tell much from the dirt, though maybe Sammy could do some research, green dirt can’t be that common. Next, he emptied out all the pockets, that’s when he found it; hex bag.

Back in the library, Dean dumped the contents of the bag onto the table in front of his brother.

“Sammy, look up where in the world green dirt is a thing, okay?”

Sam grabbed his laptop and started searching, while also paying close attention to the hex bag and its contents. It seemed simple enough; one small jar with vinegar, pepper and a note with Cas’ name on it, some black wax, 9 nails, a piece of white porcelain and a small glass cylinder filled with oil. There were also some other small items they could not immediately identify, but from what they recognised it was nothing too dangerous, nothing deadly at least.

Dean put all the items in a bowl and grabbed some matches, he was just about ready to light it when Sam suddenly grabbed his hand. “Dean, wait!”

Sam grabbed the cloth out of the bowl and laid it out flat on the table. A symbol had been drawn on the fabric.

“Hold on, I’ve seen this before.”

“Shit, you’re right Sammy. Cas!”

“What is it, Dean?” Cas asked as he walked into the room. They could feel Sam and Dean’s eyes boring into them, something was definitely up.

“Take off your shirt.”

“Dean, is this really the appropriate ti-“ After one stern look from Dean, Cas lifted his shirt slightly, exposing a symbol tattooed onto his back, the same symbol that was on the cloth.

A few minutes later, Sam put an open book in front of Dean. “It’s a reversing spell. Anything that happens to the hex bag, happens to Cas.”

The realisation hit Dean and he practically threw the matches across the room. “What the fuck!” He could have, he _would_ have burned Cas alive.

On the bright side, at least they knew who to call for help now.

——

“Well, hello, dear boy!”

“Hello, Rowena.”

“My, my, Cassie, cheer up a tad. Show some more enthusiasm, darling.”

“Hello, Rowena, thank you for coming.”

“Of course, dear Samuel. Everything for the Winchesters.”

“Alright, the mirror should be gone now. Try lighting something.”

Dean nervously lit a match and held it near one of the corners of the piece of cloth. It started smoking, but thankfully Cas did not. Dean burnt the entire cloth, Castiel did not burn.

The curse was gone, finally.

——

All was well for a while, the boys held a movie night together. Somewhere around midnight, Sam had managed to fall asleep on the couch. He was laying on his stomach, with his legs sticking out over one side of the couch and his head nestled in Dean’s side. Cas was sitting on Dean’s other side, and was currently being squeezed between Dean and the armrest, but he didn’t particularly mind. Jack sat on the floor in front of them, right in between Cas and Dean. It was nice, this was one of the moments where they both felt and looked like a family. Everything was alright. Cas could slowly feel the heavy darkness of sleep take over their mind, they rested their head on Dean’s shoulder and succumbed to their exhaustion.

Castiel dreamt, which was maybe a little bit strange, but they didn’t think much of it, they weren’t even aware they were dreaming. In the dream Castiel woke up in a dark and dusty room, they recognised it as the room they’d woken up in before, before this entire mess had started. Castiel walked around, maybe there were some clues hidden around? Something crunched on the ground underneath their shoes, it was probably a piece of wood or something, nothing to worry about. The room was mostly empty, save for some cobwebs and puddles of what they could only hope was water. It was much too dark to see anything else. Somehow, Castiel knew they had to climb to the ceiling to find the next clue, it seemed logical at the time.

Castiel placed their first foot against the wall, and then the next, and walked up. Not too long after, Cas was standing on the ceiling. Something shiny caught their eye, so they walked towards it. It was a ring, a simple, silver ring with a line carved in the centre, going all the way around, making it look like two rings put together. The ring felt familiar, so Cas picked it up. It felt warm, safe, a soft orange glow started to come off it. The light was soon bright enough to show the entire room.It was just as dusty, damp and full of cobwebs as it had seemed, but now something else was visible.

There were bones scattered on the floor, at first glance it might have looked random, but from Cas’ position on the ceiling, they undeniably formed a symbol, _the_ symbol, the one from the hex bag, the one from Cas’ tattoo.

Cas jumped down to the ground and walked over to the closest line of the sigil. It looked like it was meant to be pretty permanent; the lines had been carved into the floor and had been filled with bones and a resin-like substance. Yeah, those weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Cas inspected the bones a bit more closely. The first one that caught their eye was a skull. This skull was so obviously not human; it had three sets of teeth, one set human, two sets were pointed and looked sharp, the skull itself still had patches of scaly skin stuck to it, and there were horns protruding from it. Yeah, definitely not human. More and more did Castiel notice the strange details about the bones, all the bones. Human finger bones with sharp claws, hundred of teeth in all shapes and sizes. Cas even thought they recognised some bones to be from wings, large wings, with a dull glow of angelic grace still stuck to them. It was nauseating, to say the least. As Castiel stumbled backwards to get some support from a nearby wall, they noticed the marks on it; claw-marks, teethmarks…scorch marks. The realisation hit them hard, this wasn’t just a dungeon, this was a tomb. They were trapped here, they’d probably never even left, they’d never gone back to the bunker, it hadn’t been real, none of it had been real.

Cas could feel arms holding their body, carrying them, as they still stood in the dungeon. This was bad, this was really bad.

The crunch, of what they now knew to be bones, alerted them to the creature lurking on the other side of the room. It didn’t have a face, or clothes, or hair, or really any features at all, it was just an oily black shadow. The shadow slowly came closer, and closer, Castiel could feel the hatred and hunger radiating off it. Something had to be done. Castiel searched the space around them and found a battered old angel blade, covered in black slime and ashes, it would have to do.

“Cas?” The voice sounded hollow, like somebody talking inside a large metal container while Cas was still outside, “Cas‽”

Cas growled at the shadow as it dared to come even closer. They could feel the growl coming from deep within their body, as instinct took over, they felt their wings manifest and puff up, making them bigger and even more menacing, Cas was ready, bring it on.

The shadow slowly came closer and closer, until it was close enough for Castiel to lash out and hit it. The shadow simply blocked the blow, and Castiel tried again, and again. The shadow kept expertly blocking every attack, every blow. It kept coming closer and closer, calling out something in a strange language Cas didn’t understand, not that Cas was very focussed on understanding, they were busy fighting, all else would have to wait.

Suddenly there were two more shadows coming towards them, surrounding them. As Cas was distracted by the two presences, the first shadow managed to pry the blade from their hands. They were defenceless now, against three enemies, but they would not give up, they would, as Dean puts it, ‘go down swinging.’ Cas put their feet further apart, steadying themselves. The rumbling growls were still coming from within. Cas had to keep the shadows at a distance, so they slowly raised their wings. Cas knew they looked menacing, but not menacing enough to scare the shadows off.

One of the shadows, the smallest one, fell victim to the first blow. Cas felt the pain shoot through their wings, but elected to ignore it, this was the first attack that had been even slightly effective. They thrashed their wings around, knocking the three shadows to the wall, to the floor, anywhere to keep them away.

“Cas,” the first shadow had spoken again. “Cas please…” This time, Cas actually recognised the voice. It was mimicking Dean! Using Dean as a weapon against them. Cas stormed over to the shadow, pushing it against the wall. The smallest of the three shadows tried to intervene, but Cas just knocked them away with a flap of their wing, the shadow landed on the floor a few meters back and stayed there, just looking at Cas.

“C _as_ …” Dean’s voice sounded again, from the shadow’s mouth, or lack thereof, it sounded genuinely scared. Cas heard the fear and concern in that voice, noticed every little voice crack as the voice continued speaking in that strange language again. It was Dean’s voice, no mimic could incorporate all those little details this perfectly, unless they’d heard them before…

“What have you done with Dean‽” Cas yelled, ignoring their own voice breaking, they had to find out where they were keeping Dean. Were they torturing him, was he even still alive, where wasDean?

As Castiel had been distracted, the third shadow, the largest one, had come up behind them and was now pinning their wings to their side. Cas tried to move them, but the shadow had wrapped something around them that kept their wings firmly in place.

The other shadow quickly overpowered them, wrapping something around their arms as well.

Castiel was stuck, they had lost.

Cas sunk to their knees and just glared up at their captors, growling one more time as they waited for death.

But death never came, the shadows did not attack. Instead, Cas felt arms pick them up, carrying them away again, but no-one in the room had moved, the shadows were still standing there, Cas was still sitting on the floor, still, Cas felt that they was being carried.

Castiel woke up tied to a chair, as they looked around they recognised the dungeon in the bunker. They tried to move a little, to test their constraints for any weak points, but the sharp pain in their left wing forced them to give up. As Cas turned their head slightly, to check why there was pain there in the first place, they noticed their wings had manifested. They didn’t look great, not as bad as they had after hell, but still bad. One wing, the left one, was obviously broken, wrapped in bandages with some table legs as a makeshift splint. The wing was resting on a table, with more rope wound around it, to keep it in place.

Cas’ mind was a bit foggy, but they did remember the shadows. Why hadn’t they killed them yet, Cas should be dead by now…And why were they in the bunker at all, had they killed Sam, Dean and Jack, or were they still alive somewhere? Cas had heard someone mention in passing that there were more dungeons in the bunker, maybe they were being held in those.

The door opened and three figures walked in. Cas recognised the two tall ones, but the third one, even though it was also short, was not the same one as before. In some sick mind game of sorts, the two bigger shadows were wearing Sam and Dean’s clothes, as if Cas would be fooled by that; the inky darkness was still visible, their faces were still nonexistent.

The shadows seemed to be speaking to each other in hushed tones, still in that strange language, still in those hollow, far-away voices. As they spoke, they occasionally turned towards Castiel, looking at them, pointing. If only Cas could understand what they were saying.

The conversation had apparently come to an end, as the shortest shadow was now slowly walking towards Cas.

“Heya, kiddo.” It said, daring to speak in another familiar voice.

Castiel just growled in return, hoping to scare the shadow off, even though they knew it was pointless, _it_ wasn’t the one tied to a chair after all.

——

Gabriel approached his younger brother cautiously. From what the Winchesters had told him, Cassie didn’t seem to recognise anyone, attacking everyone that came too close. He glanced over at the battered and broken wing that lay spread out on the table. Poor Cassie, life never goes well for them, does it.

Gabriel looked at his sibling’s face. Cas’ teeth were bared and a low, growling sound was coming from deep within their body, the feathers on their wings were standing up, making them look bigger, Cas’ eyes were the worst; he could see the hatred flaming in them, even though it was almost completely overshadowed by the fear, pure fucking fear. The pupils had expanded, pushing away almost all the blue, making Cas’ eyes appear black. Gabriel had only seen this behaviour a few times, yet he would still recognise it anywhere; this was a truly terrified angel, something that didn’t happen often, but it was possible.

All he wanted right now was to hug his little brother, tell them everything was fine, they were safe, but given their track record today, that was probably a bad idea. Gabriel could feel his heart breaking as he finished his examination and turned back towards the Winchesters.

“I can’t find anything current going on, but there is some curse residue,” he said.

“What can we do about it?”

“I don’t think there is anything we _can_ do. We’ll just have to wait it out, it’s already decreasing. It’s slow, but it’s growing less powerful as we speak.”

The three of them left the room, carefully closing and locking the door behind them, and went to the kitchen, where Jack was already sitting on a table, holding a tissue to his nose. A bucket of used, bloody tissues was sitting next to him.

“You okay kid?”

“Abm ffine.”

Jack could have healed himself but it probably wasn’t a good idea to heal a broken nose before setting it. Besides, they needed to refill their medical stuff anyway, so a good excuse to visit a hospital, and then sneak in to steal some supplies, was always welcome. Which was exactly why Sam and Jack were now headed for the Impala, leaving Gabriel and Dean behind to watch over Castiel. Gabriel miracled a few bottles of booze into existence and the two prepared themselves for a long night.

A small, but comfortable sofa had been dragged into the storage room outside the dungeon. Gabriel had offered to miracle it there, but Dean insisted he wanted to do at least one thing himself. Together they sat on the sofa, eating pie and drinking alcohol, lots of alcohol. Gabriel had found some old movies on a shelf somewhere, and so they spent the evening watching movies, like some sort of grim mirror image of the evening before. Occasionally they’d check on Castiel, only receiving an angry growl in return.

——

Castiel sat in the chair, angry at the world, angry at themself. How could they have let themself get distracted like that, just because it was Dean’s voice? Cas was weak, God was probably laughing at him right now, what a failure. Cas heard the voices of the two shadows outside the dungeon door. They were talking and laughing with voices Cas knew, Gabriel and Dean. They weren’t even in the same room, why did they have to continue torturing them like that? Every once in a while the shadows would come in and just stare Cas in the eye, speaking strange words, before leaving again. What was their plan?

Cas was tired of it, Cas needed answers, “Who the fuck are you!” They started screaming, they could hear the two shadows scramble to their feet in the other room, “What do you want with me‽” They said as the shadows came running into the room. Castiel started thrashing around, ignoring the pain in their wing, using all of the built-up anger, “If you’re going to kill me, then kill me!” The shadows were trying to hold them down, but Cas ignored them and continued moving, trying to break free. They could feel their wing breaking again, but so did the ropes holding Cas down, it was working.

The shadows yelled something and not long after, a third one came running into the room to hand something to the shortest of the three, it leaned in close and whispered, “I’m sorry, little brother.”

Cas felt something hard hit the back of their head, and then there was darkness, again.

——

Castiel woke up in the tomb. The sigil in the floor had started glowing now. To be precise, the resin-like substance had started glowing a pale blue colour. Castiel recognised the glow, it was angelic grace. Castiel wondered, _how many angels have died here before me?_

Castiel sat there, unable to move, in the middle of the circle. They could feel their own grace slowly seeping out, into the resin, and there was nothing to be done about it. Castiel sat there in silence and just listened, they’d never even paid attention to the sounds in this place. The wails and screams of the dead, or at least Cas assumed they were the dead, echoed in the darkness; howls, growls, screams, hisses, creatures of all shapes and sizes, all had succumbed to the darkness.

Slowly, but steadily, Castiel’s grace left their vessel and was absorbed by the sigil, causing it to shine even brighter, Cas could feel their eyes burning.

——

“What’s happening to him‽”

Gabriel sighed, he did not have time to deal with Dean right now. His little brother was sick and for some reason their grace was depleting. He had untied Cas, against his better instinct, and together they had now carried them into the library, where they could lay them out with stretched wings. Speaking of Cas’ wings, Gabriel only now noticed how dull the feathers were, like there was barely any life left in them. They needed help, and they needed it fast.

“Is there a doctor we can call? Or a vet? Or both, we should probably get both.” It may not help much, but as long as they can sustain Cas’ vessel, his little brother wouldn’t die, yet.

——

Something had changed. Cas was no longer tied to their place, they could get up and walk around again. Cas moved to get up, but their energy had gone down significantly as the grace had leaked out, Cas was tired, all they really wanted was to fall asleep right now, never to wake up…

 _No!_ Cas still had things to do, like finding Dean, they had to make sure Dean was alive. Cas tried standing up again, to no avail, standing up cost too much energy, crawling it is then. Cas dropped to their side and stretched their hand out, finding a bone to hold on to, they pulled themself toward the bone and searched around for the next one. Slowly, Cas left the circle like this, just find something and pull, grab, pull. The change was immediate, Cas was still tired, but at least their grace level stayed constant now. Cas crawled into one of the tunnels that branched off of the large room and into a small alcove near the ground, where they finally collapsed and gave in to the exhaustion.

——

Gabe went to check up on Cas again, and was pleasantly surprised to find that their grace was no longer going down, it wasn’t really going up either, but it remained steady, which was better than they could have hoped in this situation.

Heavy footsteps came running into the room, Gabe turned around to see Sam, Dean and Jack, followed by two girls, obviously twins, carrying large duffel bags.

The first girl stepped closer and held out her hand and the second one immediately kneeled down to check on Cas, Gabe took her hand and shook it, “Hi, I’m Tsuki, this is my sister Lisa.”

“Gabriel.”

“Pleasure to meet ya.”

With that Tsuki turned around, inspecting the wings, and walked over to where it was broken. The bandages had turned red already, and Gabe swore he could see a few white shards sticking out, though he wasn’t sure about the latter.

Gabe felt Sam’s presence next to him, but he didn’t really feel like talking out loud right now.

“They’re hunters,” Sam just told him. It was a little reassuring, at least they’d know to be careful. He watched as Tsuki set the bones and carefully folded the wing back to a natural position. He watched as she applied bandages to the wounds and wrapped the wing with tape, before wrapping the tape around Cas’ chest a few times to keep the wing firmly in place. It didn’t take too long, thankfully, as Gabe fought back the nausea, he had to be here for his little brother, he’d left Cassie behind too often, he couldn’t do it again, not now.

Lisa finished tending to Cas’ wounds at around the same time as her sister.

“Come and help us, boys,” they called the Winchesters into the room to help them lift Cas up without putting too much strain on any of the wounds or on the broken wing. Finally they laid them down on one of the hospital beds, tying their hands and feet to the bed. Now all that was left, was dealing with Cas’ hallucinations, for this purpose, Lisa had pulled out a bag with different types of medication. Something had to take. First, however, Cas had to wake up, she still had to observe them in their current state to be able to make a better decision about which medication to give. What they could do was give Cas something to calm down, so they did.

“What now?”

“Now we wait for him to wake up.”

——

When Cas woke up, they felt notably better, though strangely enough they couldn’t move their left wing. But that was okay, it wasn’t like they could really fly in here anyway. They crawled out of the alcove and back into the hallway. They felt slow, but Cas wasn’t about to give up, they still had to find Dean. Slowly, Cas dragged themself through the tunnel, further into the darkness. The tunnels were just as empty as the main room; filled with nothing but dust, water and cobwebs.

Suddenly, Cas felt something small brush past their legs and run off into a low tunnel off to the side. Cas turned into the smaller tunnel and slowly started going after the small creature.

——

“Fish, down.” Tsuki called out to the small dog that had climbed onto the hospital bed and was now laying between Cas’ feet. Fish looked at his mom with a pleading look in his eyes, but when Tsuki didn’t budge, he jumped down and trotted towards Gabriel. Gabriel had been sitting in the same chair for hours now, just staring at Cas, waiting.

——

Cas opened their eyes and found themself lying in a hospital bed, hands and feet tied to the frame. The four shadows from before were in the room now, but there were also two new ones. The two new shadows didn’t look as threatening and they were both wearing doctor’s coats. Were they actually helping them? What was going on. Cas tried to free their hands, but found they were having trouble to move, like they’d been drugged. Memories from Naomi started flooding Cas’ brain and they found whatever little energy they had left to try and escape. A calming hand was placed on Cas’ shoulder, and if they just kept their eyes shut they could pretend it belonged to Dean.

When Cas had finally calmed down enough, they opened their eyes. The shadows were standing around the bed now, just looking down at him.

One of the shadows wearing a lab coat spoke to them, “Castiel, how are you?”

Cas tried to speak, but found their voice raw, like they’d been crying, eventually they managed to croak out, “fine.”

“What do you see?”

What kind of a question is that? What did Cas see? Well, them, obviously! “You, all of you.”

“Describe it to me.”

Weird, but okay, “You’re shadow people, pretending to be my friends, wearing their clothes, using their voices. Now let me go, or at least tell me if Dean is alive!” Cas tried wriggling out of the constraints again, but hands were still pinning them down on all sides.

“Dean is alive, he’s fine, are you? Be honest.”

Castiel relaxed again, Dean was alive, “I’m fine! Just have a headache…and these weird dreams. Not even sure if this isn’t a dream actually,” they hadn’t meant to say the last part out loud, but judging from the shadows’ reactions, they had.

The doctor shadow stepped away from the bed and came back moments later holding a small bottle and a glass of water, it handed them to Cas, “take these, it’ll help with your headache.”

Cas looked down at the small blue pills. They were still suspicious, but what did they really have left to lose. Dean was alive, that was all that was important. Cas took the pills and finished the glass of water.

“It’s not working.”

“They’re not instant, Castiel. Be patient.”

Castiel closed their eyes and fell back asleep again.

——

“That actually went surprisingly well.”

“It did! Tsuki, you okay?”

Tsuki was standing a small distance away from the group, seemingly lost in thought, “What? Yeah, no, I’m fine, I was just thinking. What could make something as powerful as an angel just, break like this? And those shadow people…something weird must have happened to him when he went missing.”

“but what?”

“Indeed.”

——

Castiel woke from their nap and looked around to find the room dark and empty. They moved their arms to try and free them again, but someone had had the bright idea of attaching a bell, which now rang and alerted the shadows.

Six figures came running into the room, turning on the lights. As Castiel squinted, trying to adjust to the brightness, the figures came closer. When Cas could finally see clearly, they recognised the figure at their feet, “Dean!”

Dean pushed past the other people, Sam, Gabriel, Jack, and kneeled by Cas’ head, “Hey there, buddy.”

Cas saw the tears in his eyes and noticed the slight tremble in his voice. Had Dean really been that worried, about _me_?

“What happened, where are they?”

“Where are who, Cas?”

“The shadow people.”

“They were never real, Cas, they were us.”

“But…does that mean…” Castiel looked around the group to see the scratches on Sam’s face, where they had scratched one of the shadow men, and Jack’s broken nose. Cas felt the panic as they looked at all the pain they’d caused. Cas’ inner turmoil was clearly visible on their face, as everyone immediately started to reassure them. Cas didn’t hear their words, they just sounded like a different language, as they kept their eyes screwed shut, trying to keep their breathing under control. They felt the tears streaming down their face, but they didn’t bother wiping them away. They just had to breathe, just had to calm down. Suddenly there was a weight placed onto their chest, it moved around a little but eventually settled down. It helped, Cas could feel the panic slowly ebbing away.

Cas opened their eyes. The weight had been a small dog, which was now peacefully sleeping on Cas’ chest. Cas looked around and their eyes landed on Gabriel, who just smiled down. ‘Thank you,’ they mouthed to their brother. Gabriel’s smile widened. Most of the others had left the room already, save for Dean, who was now fast asleep on the edge of the bed, tightly holding on to Cas’ hand.

Cas could have sworn they saw an oily black sheen behind Dean’s hair and they had almost pulled their hand back in horror, but then they remembered Sam’s words, _they weren’t real, they were us._ When Cas did a double take, they saw that this was, in fact, just Dean. Cas slowly pulled Dean away from the edge and wrapped their good wing around him, revelling in the warmth generated between them.

——

Gabriel quietly got up, as to not wake his little brother and Dean, and left the room, turning off the lights. Everyone deserved their rest now, especially those two. He walked to the kitchen where he joined Sam, Jack, Tsuki and Lisa for dinner, occasionally adding plates of sweets to the table.

The trouble wasn’t over yet, but at least they had found a way to deal with it.

———

Notes:

Cas would end up taking the medication for several more weeks until all the remnants of the curse were completely gone. Their wings would take about a month to heal, and they couldn’t just hide their wings, so they spent a lot of time indoors. Let’s just say, they watched a lot of movies, or the same movies a lot of times.

**Author's Note:**

> idk, you could read Dean and Cas' relationship anyway you want...there is probably about the same amount of subtext as in the actual show.
> 
> anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this, and even if ya didn't I still enjoyed writing it.  
> If you have anything to say, leave a comment, you know the drill.


End file.
